The present invention is directed to a controller for a vehicle and, more particularly, to a handheld controller for controlling a vehicle.
Modern vehicles, such as for example, automobiles, planes, armored vehicles, helicopters, boats, submarines, and the like, require the vehicle's operator to control many different aspects of the vehicle's operation. This is particularly true of military and law enforcement vehicles, which often require an operator to control equipment related to weaponry, countermeasures, communications, surveillance, and movement (e.g., direction, speed, altitude, depth, etc.) of the vehicle.
In such vehicles, control is typically accomplished through stationary control devices (e.g., buttons, dials, levers, wheels, and the like) that are rigidly fastened to the vehicle console, dashboard, or other control panel. While this served well in past, the increasing number of features found in modern vehicles leads to an increasingly complex control panel, while at the same time requiring the operator to perform control tasks at a faster rate.
Moreover, another drawback of the modern vehicle control technology is that in order to operate fixed controls, the operator must be positioned near the control panel. For example, U.S. soldiers fighting in the Iraq war reported that in order to operate existing fixed controls, the vehicle operators would have to remove their restraining straps and seat belts to have sufficient freedom within the vehicle's cockpit to operate the fixed controls. Tragically, when such vehicles were struck by enemy artillery, these operators were thrown about the vehicle's cockpit and seriously injured.
Thus, there is a need for a controller for controlling that allows the operator to quickly control a number of aspects of the vehicle's operation, while at the same time giving the operator the freedom to control the vehicle from a safe position.